The Book of table-talk [ed. by C. MacFarlane].

cheke to another, yea almost from one eare to another, and turned up like two homes towards the forehead. Besides that, when they come to the cutting of the haire, what snipping and snapping of the cycersis there; what tricking and trimming, what rubbing, what scratching, what combing and clawing, what trickling and toying, and all to tawe out money, you may be sure. And when they come to washing, oh! how gingerly they behave themselves therein; for then shall your mouth be bossed with the lather or fome that riseth of the balles (for they have their sweete balles wherewithall they use to washe); your eyes closed must be anointed therewith also. Then snap go the fingers; ful bravely, God wot. Thus, this tragedy ended, comes me warme clothes to wipe and dry him withall; next theeares must be picked, and closed togither againe artificially forsooth; the hair of nostrils cutaway, and every thing done in order comely to behold. The last action in this tragedie is the paiment of monie. And least these cunning barbers might seeme unconscionable in asking much for their paines, they are of such a shamefast modesti'e, as they will aske nothing at all, but, standing to the curtesie and liberaltie of the giver, they will receive all that comes, how much soever it be, not giving anie againe, I warrant you; for take a barber with that fault, and strike off his head. No, no, such fellowes are Rarce in ten-is, nigrisque simillirni cygnis,—Rare birds upon the earth, and as geason as black swans. You shall have also your Orient perfumes for your nose, your fragrant waters for your face, wherewith you shall bee all to besprinkled: your musicke againe, and pleasant harmonie shall sound in your eares, and all to tickle the same with vaine delight. And in the end your cloke shall be brushed, and, God be with you, gentleman I

Theod.—All these curious conceits, in my judgement, are rather done 1'or to allure and provoke the minds of men to be bountifull and liberall towards them, than lor any good else which they bring either to the bodie or health of man.

Amphil.—True it is that you say; and therefore you
must needes thinke they are maisters of their science that can invent all these knacks to get money withall. But yet I must needs say (these nisities set apart) barbers are verie necessarie, for otherwise men should grow verie ougglisom and deformed, and their haire would in processe of time overgrowe their faces, rather like monsters, than comlie sober Christians. And if it be said that any man may cut off the haire one of another, I answer, they may so, but yet not in such comlie and decent manner as these barbers exercised therein can doe; and besides, they knowe that a decorum in everie thing is to be observed. And therefore I cannot but marvell at the beastliness of some ruffians (for they are no sober Christians) that will have their haire to grow over their faces like monsters and savage people, nay, rather like madmen than otherwise, hanging downe over their shoulders, as women's haire doth; which indeed is an ornament to them, being given as a sign of subjection, but in man it is a shame and reproach, as the Apostle proveth. And thus much of barbers and their science." —Anatomie of Abuses, Sf-c. made dialogvewise by Phillip Stubbes.

Mr. d'Israeli calls Stubbes a " morose puritan ;" but in good truth Master Phill is a very amusing fellow.

XCI. USE OF GLASS IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AND JAMES I.

WITH A BIT OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

"It is a world to see in these our days, wherein gold and silver most aboundeth, how that our gentilitie, as lothing those mettals (because of the plenty) do now rather choose Venice glass. The poorest also will have glass if they may, but sith the Venetian is somewhat too deer for them, they content themselves with such as are made at home of feme and burned stone; but in fine all go one way, that is, to shards, at the last; so that our great expenses in glasses (beside that they breed much
strife toward such as have the charge of them) are worst ot all bestowed in mine opinion, because their peeces do turn unto no profit. If the philosopher's stone were once found, and one part hereof mixed with forty of molten glass, it would induce such a metallicall toughness thereunto, that a fall should nothing hurt in such manner: yet it might peradventure bunch or batter it; nevertheless that inconvenience were quickelie to be redressed by the hammer. But whither am I slipped?"—Holinshed, Description of England.

During the reign of the sapient James, the use of glass vessels became still more extensive ; but the art of making them still remained matter of wonderment to Englishmen. In a letter written to his brother from Venice, and dated June, 1621, James Howell saith,

"The art of glass-making here is very highly valued, for whosoever be of that profession are gentlemen ipso facto; and it is not without reason, it being a rare kind of knowledge and chymistry to transmute dust and sand (for they are the only main ingredients) to such a diaphonous pellucid dainty body as you see a crystal glass is, which hath this property above gold, or silver, or any other mineral, to admit no poison ;• as also, that it never wastes or loses a whit of its first weight, tho' you use it never so long. When I saw so many sorts of curious glasses made here, I thought upon the compliment which a gentleman put upon a lady in England, who, having five or six comely daughters, said, He never saw in his life such a dainty cupboard of crystal glasses. The compliment proceeds, it seems, from a saying they have here, That the first handsome woman that ever was made, was made of Venice glass; which implies beauty, but brittleness withal (and Venice is not unfurnished with some of that mould, for no place abounds more with lasses and .glasses). * * * But when I pry'd into the materials,

* A superstitions notion long prevailed that a pure Venetian glass would crack or burst to pieces if poison were put into it. This was a good way of keeping up their price when poisoning was common.

and observed the furnaces and calcinations, the transubstantiations, the liquefactions that are incident to this art, my thoughts were rais'd to a higher speculation; that if this small furnace fire hath virtue to convert such a small lump of dark dust and sand into such a precious clear body as crystal, surely that grand universal fire which shall happen at the day of judgement, may, by its violent ardour vitrify and turn to one lump of crystal the whole body of the earth; nor am I the first that fell upon this conceit.

In another letter, addressed to " Dr. Fr. Mansell, at All Souls in Oxford," Howell again alludes to the glasstrade at Venice, into which it appears one of King James's courtiers had entered as a speculator.

"Your honourable uncle Sir Robert Mansell, who is now in the Mediterranean, hath been very notable to me, and I shall ever acknowledge a good part of my education from him. He hath melted vast sums of money in the glass-business, a business indeed more proper for a merchant than a courtier. I heard the king should say, That he wondered Robin Mansell, being a seaman, whereby he hath got so much honour, should fall from water to tamper with_/Sre, which are two contrary elements. My father fears that this glass employment will be too brittle a foundation for me to build a fortune upon."—Epi&tolce Ho-Elianm.

The Queen of the Adriatic, that now purchases glass from Germany, Bohemia, and England, supplied all Europe with the superior kinds of that commodity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

XCII. EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF A

LEARNED DIVINE AND ANTIQUARY OF

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Joke 25th, 1766.—Foggy. My beautiful parrot died at ten at night, without knowing the cause of his illness, he being very well last night.

Feb. I. Saturday.—Fine day and cold. Will Wood junior carried three or four loads of dung into the clay-pit close. Baptised William, the son of William Grace, blacksmith, who I married about six months before.

March 3. Monday.—I baptised Sarah, the bastard daughter of the widow Smaliwood of Eton, aged near 50, whose husband died above a year ago.

6. Thursday.—Very fine weather. My man was blooded. I sent a loin of pork and a spare-rib to Mr. Cartwright in London.

27. Thursday.—I sent my two French wigs to my London barber to alter them, they being made so miserably I could not wear them.

June 17. Tuesday.—Windy, cold, and rainy. I went to our new archdeacon's visitation at Newport-Pagnel. I took young H. Travel with me, in order that he might hear the organ at Newport, he being a great psalm-singer. Mr. Tanquerary, rector of Bow-Brick-Hill, preached the sermon before the archdeacon, who gave a charge. The most numerous appearance of clergy that I remember: forty-four dined with the archdeacon, and, what is extraordinary, not one smoked tobacco. My new coachhorse very ungain.

Aug. 16th. Saturday.—Cool day. Tom reaped for Joe Holdom. I cudgelled Jem for staying so long on aj errand at Newton Longueville."

The Rev. William Cole, author of ' Athenae Cantabrigienses,' (for our diarist was no less a personage)